1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lawn care equipment and more particularly to a leaf mulcher connected with and receiving leaves picked up by the rotary lawn mower blade of a garden tractor.
Near the end of the growing season, deciduous trees shed their leaves which in addition to being unsightly when deposited on lawn grasses, tend to smother the vegetation. Many gardeners rake up such loose leaves and bag them in plastic receptacles for disposal.
It is well known that if such leaves are broken up or cut into sufficiently fine particles they will sift down between the blades of grass and not form a smothering or shading action thereon. Also, these fine leaf cuttings form an excellent mulch, preventing evaporation of water and adding humus to the soil when incorporated therein.
It is desirable that these leaves be picked up by the action of a lawn mower rotary blade in generating a forced draft of air through a chute on the lawn mower and transferred to a leaf mulcher which this invention provides.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,134,212 issued to Ira J. Gary on May 26, 1964 discloses a mulching attachment for connection with a lawn mower. This device features a mulching screen surrounding the periphery of the rotating mulching blade and having a mulching attachment in the lawn mower housing which ensures that the draft or inflow of air carries the vegetation to be comminuted from the ground into the mulch blade and the interior of the mulching attachment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,865 issued to Howard C. Ober on Apr. 25, 1972 discloses a leaf mulcher for a riding lawn mower, in which grass clippings and leaves are shredded within the rotary blade housing and are discharged to a power driven rotary impeller laterally of the mower and is driven by the mower engine. The impeller drives the shredded material into and through an over hanging chute which directs the material into an open top receptacle mounted rearwardly of the mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,020 issued to Einar S. Dahl, et al, on May 20, 1975 discloses a leaf shredder for a rotary mower. The principal feature of this patent is a screen which is detachably mounted inside the blade housing extending transversely of the discharge outlet through which the material discharged from the interior of the blade housing must pass and is thereby shredded to a small particle size, suitable for mulching purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,629 issued to Lionel E. Russell, et al, on Aug. 17, 1976 discloses a lawn mower in which the rotary blade thereof transfers grass cuttings and leaves picked up through a lateral mower housing chute into a housing, laterally of the mower housing which contains an auxiliary blade belt driven from the prime mover of the lawn mower for further cutting grass and leaves which are then discharged by the auxiliary rotating blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,904 issued to Alexander D. Paker on Feb. 26, 1980 discloses a leaf mulcher attachment for lawn mowers which comprises an plate having inwardly extending tines positioned in front of the grass ejection chute.
The vertical tines are struck out inwardly of the plate within the motor housing and shield the resulting holes in the plate. The tine-equipped plate thus effectively blocks the ejection chute and results in diverting the normal flow of leaves picked up by the mower blade so that the blade may have more than one pass at the leaves. The tines further operate to mulch the leaves as the leaves are forced by the tines by the mower blade lifting and ejection force.
A secondary mulching effect is achieved by the leaves being forced through the blade plate openings formed by the struck out tines.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,125 issued to Hubert E. Strickland on Oct. 25, 1983 discloses a multi-function apparatus for lawn maintenance.
The apparatus is provided with a wheel-equipped housing having an apertured upper deck on which an engine is centered. Conduits extend from the apertures to a collector box positioned above the engine. The rotary motion of the grass cutting blade generates an air and debris stream propelled upwardly through the housing apertures and conduits into the collector box. The debris is mulched by counter rotating blades with the exit of the collector box emptying into a bag mounted rearwardly of the mower.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,446 issued to Bert L. Israel on Jan. 2, 1990 discloses a mulching attachment for lawn mowers which features a mulching plate disposed within the cavity of a mower housing containing an angularly rotating blade with the plate disposed adjacent the path travel of the mower cutting blade so that the blade and plate forms a shearing or scissoring action on vegetation picked up by the rotary mower blade. The plate being disposed adjacent the discharge opening of the rotary mower housing to permit the air flow and discharge of finely mulched vegetation therethrough.
This invention is distinctive over the above and other similar patents by providing a housing surrounding a driven fan having cupped blades generating a forced air flow through intake and outlet chutes of the fan housing. Friction bars on the extremity of the respective fan blade cooperate with friction bars mounted on an arc of the perimeter of the fan housing for mulching leaves and other vegetation air blast forced therebetween before exiting the discharge chute.